POW/MIA in American Wars (Infographic)

POW/MIA – Prisoners of War and Missing in Action

The casualties of war are, despite best efforts, not exactly quantifiable. There are too many question marks after the names of too many soldiers. Neither are fates that anyone wishes, but both are risks that every service member has taken.

The families and their fellow soldiers of those classified as POW/MIA experience a unique grieving process marked by questions rather than definitives. While efforts are being made to recover the many, many MIA’s of wars past, Americans pledge that POW/MIA soldiers are never forgotten.

The total POW/MIA numbers are dumbfounding. The official POW/MIA Recognition day isn’t until September, but for many veterans and veteran families, every day is POW/MIA Recognition Day.

POW/MIA in recent news:

Sgt. 1st Class Billy D. Hill went MIA when his helicopter was shot down in his second Vietnam Tour. His remains were recently recovered and brought back and buried in Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen, TX. Close to 1,000 people attended. (Full story.)

Remains of a yet to be identified soldier were flown from the discovery location in Malaysia in November 2015 to Hawaii, where identification is hoped to be solidified. The found aircraft went MIA in 1945, along with its three crew members. (Full story.)

In October 2015, a search team spent 35 days in the Himalayan Mountains in India searching for evidence of eight Air Corps members from a fallen B-24J aircraft in 1944. (Full story.)